CRAFTING IN MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

In this video, we’ll go over Crafting in-depth, from research to development & after we’re done you should have a full understanding of how this initially complex looking system works. At the very basic level, there are 2 steps, First, you gain a blueprint for a weapon, some armour or an item augment, Then you craft the item. Gaining blueprints can be done in 2 ways, Either you buy or find blueprints, or you research them. buying and finding is fairly self-explanatory, but to research them you need research data, Research data is a point system and works as a currency for tech, To gain them, you must scan things, When you point your scanner at things they will either be see through, solid yellow or solid red, If it’s see through there’s nothing of use, or you’ve already scanned it, If it’s yellow, it’s either scannable but too far away, or it’s denoting power lines or points of interest under floors or within walls.

If it’s red you can scan it for research points. There are 3 different types of research points, Milky Way, Andromeda and a third mystery tech that you will find out after you’ve played a little while. These 3 types represent different forms of tech. Each form of tech has its own weapons, armour and augments and only the respective type of research data can be spent on its own type of tech. Whatever you scan, whether it be from the milky way, andromeda or the mystery tech will determine the type of research data points you receive.

That pretty much covers obtaining research data and a basic understanding of what it is. Now let’s go over how you spend it. To do anything within research and development you must be interacting with an R&D station, these can be found on your ship and at various outposts. Once you have interacted with it, you will have a 2 option menu, the left is research, right is development. If you click on research it will bring up the research menu showing you by default all of the milky way tech, you can change between the 3 different tech types by clicking the tab at the top. within each tech type tab are subsections for weapons, armour and augments. If you go into one of those sub sections it will list all of your blueprints in that specific section. highlighting a blueprint will show you information on the resulting craftable item on the right-hand side, Once you have found a blueprint you wish to research, click it to go into yet another sub menu where it will have different tiers.

The first one is the basic blueprint for that item, nothing special, just the starting version. The ones below it are upgraded versions and require more research than its previous as well as requiring the previous rank to research. The further you go in the ranks of a specific item you will see it requires more prerequisites like level 10+ You can bring up a comparison to your current item of the same type in this menu. In this menu, it will also tell you what is required to craft the item once the blueprint is procured. It should be noted that only research points are needed to gain the blueprint, the items on the right, the crafting materials are for the actual crafting of the item. Another note is that each blueprint has a rarity, Its rarity level determines how much the blueprint will cost in research data points to obtain. Now you know how to get your blueprints, we can move on to crafting, or as it’s known within the game, the Development System.

To craft or develope an item you need 2 sets of things, a Blueprint & crafting materials. The crafting materials are different for each item and can be gained in all manner of ways. Early on it will show you gaining some iron from an asteroid, you will also see resource deposits dotted around the maps as well as other resources and random tech needed for crafting on mobs and in containers. Once you have your needed items or even to find out exactly what you need, go to the same station you did for your Blueprint research and this time click on the Development option.

In the development menu, it will by default be in the ready to make blueprints tab, which holds everything you currently have the materials for, all of the other tabs will narrow down the blueprints by type. Find the blueprint you wish to craft an item from and either note what crafting materials you are missing, Or if you have them all, create your weapon. You have the option when crafting to rename if you wish. Once you have crafted your brand new item, remember you will need to go to a place where you can alter your current loadout to equip that item.

That should cover just about everything to do with Blueprints, Research Data Points & Development. If there is anything you don’t fully understand or maybe something I missed or just even want to say Hi, leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible, If you had a question, the likelihood is that others will also, so we may as well help each other out down there. Like if you liked, dislike if you didn’t, think about subscribing and have an awesome day folks..